Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-09-17

of the bombardment filling their ears,
and with the knowledge that the
bridegroom must at once quit his
wife's side for service with his COM
mand, q sense of apprehension and
sorrow brooded over the assemblage.
The most serene and self-possessed Of
all present, the newspaper reports said
was Miss Pickens, whose stately beau
ty was heightened by contrast with
the surroundings.
The clergyman's voice broke the
silence of the group with the reading
Of the marriage form, and he had just
reached the interrogatories when the
horrible roar of a shell, vastly louder
than those flying over the distant Sec
tons of the city, drowned every other
sound. 1t came from an advanced
battery that General Foster had re-
Gently opened well up on the inner
side of Morris Island, and within a
fOur-mile range ofthe Rhett residence.
The 200 pounds Of iron, loaded with
incendiary material, described a ira
jectory that ended upon the roof of
the house, from whence it crashed
through the intermediate floors and
burst in the midst of the wedding
party.
When the Sitting smoke had clear
ed away, and men could breathefro
the suffOcating fumes of the powder,
the apartment-its walls and ceiling
partly blown out, its furniture knock
ed into chips, blood spattered every
where, fragments of human forms
strewing the tioor-was a cen of in
describe terror.
Three of the wedding guests had
been instantly killed, and not a per-
son in the room had escaped injury of
some sort. Lieutenant de Rochelle
and the clergyman were only slight
ly injured, but Miss Pickens was
PROSTATE and saturated with blood
that streamed from where her Shout
der had been cruelty torn by a frag.
ment of the shell. A surgeon pro-
nounced her dead, but when she was
laid upon a couch she slightly reviv-
ed and endeavored to speak, each
heave of her breast causing the blood
to flow in an increasing current.
De Rochelle approached her side
and placed his ear close to the lips
that were painfully struggling to ut
ter unintelligible words. Her eyes
sought the clergyman with a look
that begged him to draw nigh. He
did so, and de Rochelle, catching a.
by inspiration her meaning, asked
her if she would have the remainder
of the ceremony performed before she
died. Again she made the effort tC
speak and failed.
Then the clergyman, with his robe
stained from the wound he had re
ceived, stood over the couch of the
dying woman, whose hand ha(
sought that of her lover, and proceed
ed with the reading of the holy ritua
in the apartment from which thu
slain had not yet been removed anC
where the blood was still fresh anC
reeking. When he put the question
whether she would have the man be
side her for her welded husband, he
attempt to answer brought on thu
paroXysms of mortal dissolution
Foam tlecked her lips and her face
became ashen gray, but with a tina
and supreme eXertion she murmured
81 will" Christmas came in at mid
night with the laundering diapasOr
of the never silent cannonade,a and tn,
morning sun broke upon the deat
face of Margaret Pickens de Rochelle
And this is the story told by the mar
BILE in the Christ Church home of TIT
silent majority and remembered by
Charlestonians unforgetful of thu
beauty and grace of the daughter o
South Cardinals first war governor
Tho Do1sA;oo So Al r,,A-.